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S•O•S℠ Fluid Analysis Can Save You Thousands

, | September 8, 2015 | By

SOS-Fluid-Analysis-Get-It-TestedSimilar to receiving comprehensive tests to diagnose, confirm or dispel possible medical issues for your personal health, there are tests available through oil sampling to check the health of your fleet.

With S•O•S℠ Services, which has been an important part of Caterpillar since the late 1960s, fluid analysis samples from your machines are evaluated and turned into the valuable information you need to keep your fleets running at optimal level. This repair-before-failure process starts with a fluid sample from your machine that you've brought to the lab to be processed through four types of tests -- component wear rate, oil condition, oil contamination and oil identification. These tests are performed on engine, hydraulic and drive train oils to detect potential problems early.

Turn Results into Actionable Steps

After the sample is processed, the test results are analyzed by a Caterpillar-trained interpreter at Cleveland Brothers. These results are turned into a report which gets sent to you for evaluation and possible action. But this report isn't just any report; it's a detailed analysis with recommendations based on color-coded alert levels -- green, yellow and red -- that provide you with a quick indication of compartment health and whether or not action is needed on your machine. This information proves to be vital for diagnosing problems that are not yet apparent.

Let's put this into perspective...

Let's say we want to run a fluid analysis on a Cat® D10 Bulldozer. An oil sample kit with an estimated cost of $15 can provide information to diagnose issues. Early detection can result in thousands of dollars saved in repair costs. You do the math...$15 versus spending thousands on repairs – that's a no brainer.

So now let's say the S•O•S Analysis report resulted in a Red Alert. A highly trained technician would analyze the necessary components and provide a recommendation. In this particular case, the problem was a coolant leak and the technician recommended replacing the head gasket with an estimated cost of $6,000.

But maybe you never had your oil sampled, or you did and decided to ignore the recommendation. Either way, the result could be catastrophic, possibly resulting in a poor-core engine loss at an estimated cost of $80,000 to replace. That's a difference of $74,000 in money saved by receiving and reacting to this valuable information early.

SOS-Fluid-Analysis-Saves-Thousands-Dollars

 

Never Ignore the results. Be Proactive.

In addition to being a huge cost savings, by taking a proactive approach and providing oil samples to be analyzed through S•O•S Fluid Analysis, you're also setting yourself up to avoid downtime. Using the report of your sample as a guide, parts and services are often times readily available and Cleveland Brothers technicians can go directly to the core of the problem, reducing troubleshooting time.

By sampling your fluid through S•O•S Services at Cleveland Brothers, you're taking the first important step to proactively ensure that your machines are running at optimal level, so you can concentrate on what's most important -- getting your job done.

 

Get started with SOS Fluid Analysis

Interested in learning more about S•O•S Fluid Analysis, send Cleveland Brothers a message today or give us a call at (866) 551-4602.

 

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